Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Catching up with the news

Hello my friends

Well once again I have not been as faithful to posting here as I would like, where to begin?

For starters, at the AUTEC base we have a member we affectionately refer to as 'The Card Lady'. She is a sweetheart and has taken it upon herself to generate Get Well, Birthday, and Bereavement Cards for just about everyone on base. Well she has outdone herself! Awhile back there was something called 'Clergy Appreciation Day'. I had never heard of it, but she had. With very littel fan-fare, after our Saturday evening liturgy, I was surprised with a celebration complete with chesse and crackers, fruit, juice and cake, a card, and a wonderful photo album as a gift. Everyone who came to church filed into the hall at the rear of the church, including a few visiting engineers from companies testing their equipment with the Navy. It was great to be recognized like this and it really gave me a sense that what we are doing here is appreciated.


A few weeks ago we stopped to do our regular Sunday communion call with Anna. I have mentioned her here in the blog before. Anna is in her 90's and blind. On this Sunday we were told it was her 95th birthday, so after communion we all sang Happy Birthday and she sang and clapped her hands along with us. I've never posted a pic of Anna before, but to commemmorate her birthday she let us take her pic - here it is!



Anna, if you remember, is the woman who once gave me a hug and then said, "Oh Deacon, you be da big mahn, you come from da big bone" - cracked me up.

As you can see, the beard has gotten a bit long. The local Chamber of Commerce has asked if I would be willing to play Santa and so I have let it go. I am not sure when that will take place but you will certainly hear about it here if it really happens.


Every month we go to Nassau for a meeting with the Archbishop and the other Bahamian clergy. Our meeting is at the Emmaeus Ctr, a great facility for meetings like this. It sits atop a hill overlooking Nassau and is a great place to pray, as well as connect with other clergy to compare notes on are various ministries.


The grounds include a Benedictine cemetary and I have actually found the grave of Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB, the first priest to ever serve on Andros.
I have much more to tell you but I just realized the time and I have to run out to teach our last CCD class before the Christmas break. After class we will head out to the AUTEC base for dinner, followed by the rosary and a liturgy to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. As an island nation getting to church can be problematic for many people so the Archdiocese of Nassau only has two holy days of obligation, Christmas and The Feast of the Holy Family (New Years). However, with so many Americans on the Navy Base we thought we would celebrate the Solemnity with that community.
Anyway - I better get going.
Till next time